As China continues to develop into a mature economy, the need for better financial oversight from the government and corporates will start to grow. According to the CFA Institute 2015 Global Market Sentiment Survey (GMSS) of 5,259 financial professionals, improved enforcement of existing laws and regulations (31%) was cited as the top issue that needed to be addressed next year for China-focused investors.

Participants were mostly concerned about market fraud (40%) and integrity of financial reporting (32%) when interacting with China. Similar results were also seen for the rest of the APAC region, "our issues are more basic than elsewhere in the world", comments Paul Smith, managing director of Asia-Pacific, CFA Institute. "We see some market fraud in China but the China Securities Regulatory Commission has made a commitment to stamp out rat trading and other forms of market abuse."

The GMSS mentioned that having a zero-tolerance policy from top management on ethical issues (42%) as a good method for building investor trust and confidence in China. This was followed closely by better alignment of compensation with investor objectives (24%).

"These findings suggest that in the six years since the global financial crisis, improvements in regulation, risk management, and firm-level reforms do not yet appear to be sufficient to support a definitive global economic recovery and restore investor trust," says Smith.

Navigating through the amount of new financial regulations has become a challenge for companies in China. Faced with increasingly complex and constantly changing rules, Chinese financial services firms have begun investing more into compliance systems.

Research from technology firm SunGard Financial Systems discovered that Chinese financial services firms have invested more in compliance than their global peers over the past two years. A survey of 85 China-based found that Chinese firms were highly concerned about the consequences of regulatory failure such as the loss of clients and reputational damage.

According to the research, 70.6% of firms surveyed have increased their staffing in compliance departments. Around 42.2% of them have invested in new technology to help alleviate regulatory pressure. The majority (84.7%) of respondents plan to spend more on technology in the next two years which is "higher than the global average", the report states.

Furthermore, Chinese firms appear to be relying more on consulting services with 69.4% of respondents believing that speaking with external advisors/specialists as a healthy activity that would complement their wider business goals. However, the survey also discovered that companies in China felt they weren't ready for upcoming regulatory changes with 21.2% of firms believing they were "highly ready" and 58.8% categorizing themselves as "moderately ready."

Overall, 35.3% respondents interviewed said that the need to deal with constant regulatory changes has limited their ability to expand their business. "Regulatory change will remain an ongoing challenge for the businesses in China," says Richard Zhu, country manager for SunGard. "What is encouraging is that we are seeing a clear trend of deployment of flexible and proven solutions that support ever-growing regulatory changes. This helps organizations focus on their core business activities and build strong competitive advantages."